Big win for BJP in Jammu; bags 25 of 37 seats

Jammu: BJP made significant inroads in the Jammu region as it bagged 25 of the 37 seats in the province, a feat which helped it emerge as the second largest party in Jammu and Kashmir where the Assembly election results were announced on Tuesday.

The party, however, failed to make any breakthrough in the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh where it drew a blank in 50 seats.

In the Jammu region, Congress got five seats followed by three each by NC and PDP and one went to lone Independent candidate from Udhampur Kuldeep Gupta.

In 2008, BJP had won 11 seats in the region. Congress had bagged 13 seats, followed by six by NC, two by PDP, three by J&K Panthers Party and two by Independent candidate.

BJP also made inroads in Chenab Valley, the home turf of Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, bagging four of the six seats. Congress had won five of the six seats in Chenab valley in 2008 polls.

However, the vote share of BJP has dropped dropped to 23 per cent from 32 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"We have tried our best. We have bagged 25 seats in these polls. It is history for BJP this time. Although we have not got results in Ladakh region and some areas in Kashmir on expected lines, but we did very well in Jammu," BJP spokesperson Suresh Magotra said.

"Modi wave which is all about good governance, development and anti-corruption has surpassed the Amarnath land row wave of 2008 when for the first time the party created a history by winning 11 seats. Today, the party has won 25 seats which in itself is a clear victory of the Modi wave," another BJP state spokesman Balbir Ram Rattan said.

"We made a gain of 14 seats which is a clear victory of the slogan of development over every other slogan. The people in the state were fed up with bad governance, widespread corruption and above all dynasty politics," Rattan said.

Many BJP candidates who won the Assembly elections for the first time attributed their success to the work done by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre.

"The credit of our victory goes to the positive wave created by the good governance being provided by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre," Gagan Bhagat, the BJP candidate who won from RS Pura, said.

He defeated PDP's Bhushan Lal with a margin of 13,610 votes.

Bhagat said the party high command would decide on the question of government formation in the state.

"The party high command would take the decision on the formation of the government in the state. The task that was assigned to us was to win the seat which we did," he said.